UB recently announced that they are canceling the Aruba Poker Classic to focus on launching their new $500k weekly guaranteed tournaments. This is good news as it marks the beginning of a new serious of tournaments along with another does of the UB Online Championships that have been so popular. UB is planning on holding the Online Championships twice a year now which puts them on par with similar series on Pokerstars and Full Tilt. UB has also indicated that they will continue to qualify players for major land based tournaments such as the WPT and WSOP.

This is my latest post on Oz Poker. I hope you enjoy it.
Curtis III

Agony of Going Deep | Australian Online Poker | Oz Poker – Australian Poker.

I am sure everyone is wondering how things have been since I moved over to Ultimate Bet. To put it mildly things have been great and I am running ridiculously good right now. I recently took down a single table and ran deep again for my second cash in the nightly $10 dollar which usually has 650 or so entries. I finished 16th and 26th respectively and was bad beat out of both poker tournaments.

I also final tabled a smaller 57 entry tournament for a very nice cash and took down 5th place. Basically all of the reasons I gave you guys for my leaving PokerStars have been reinforced even more. My starting bankroll has more than doubled already and I only play tournaments and single tables. Again, the difference being that UB has smaller fields giving me much better percentages to make and take down final tables. The best is yet to come!

Yes, it’s that time again. I will be playing in the Majestic Star Deep Stacks poker tournament this coming weekend in Indiana. The tournament usually has around 70 players. The structure has 30 minute levels and starts you out with $9000 chips and $50 / $25 blinds. Its about time for me to break through to the final table having bubbled twice in five tries. I’m looking forward to it!

If you hadn’t noticed already ESPN is now broadcasting the WSOPE Main Event Championship and it has been a blast to watch. The tournament is still in the early stages and nothing too dramatic has taken place but it has been a lot of fun watching Brunson, Obrestad, Bloch and many others go at it on the TV table. So be sure to tune in. Here is the upcoming broadcast schedule:

Sunday, February 14th: 11:00pm ET
Monday, February 15th: 12:00am ET
Monday, February 15th: 1:00am ET
Sunday, February 28th: 9:00pm ET
Sunday, February 28th: 10:00pm ET

Enjoy!

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The 2010 WSOP schedule has been announced.There will be 57 bracelet events this time around which is the same as last year. The WSOP will run from May 27th through July 17th. In a twist on the past two years the Chip Reese memorial H.O.R.S.E. event will be the first event open to all comers. The H.O.R.S.E. event still has the lofty $50k buy-in but this time will be televised unlike last season. It has also been re-named to the “Players Championship.”

Otherwise, it looks pretty much the same as last year. Unfortunately there will be another delayed final table.

Now that all of the hoopla is over and the hams and turkeys are long gone I can look back on this past week with a smile. I ran ridiculously good and my bankroll is extremely happy about it. I took 2nd place in a large multi-table tournament and cashed in several others. Also, I caught some really good cards at the right time and they held up. All the skill in the world doesn’t mean too much if your hands are not holding up but I certainly didn’t have that problem.  The next live poker tournament I will be playing will be at the Majestic Star casino. They are having a Winter Deep Stacks Challenge in another week or so and I will be there ready to go.

I hope that everyone is enjoying success with their poker games or at least moving towards the goals that they have set for 2009. Remember, we still have a few weeks left to hit those 2009 goals.

Good luck!

If you haven’t heard about it Joe Sebok just inked a deal with Ultimate Bet. You may have read some of my previous posts about the non-sense that was taking place over there a few years back with all of the cheating scandals. I don’t want to get into the gory details as most of you are already aware of what happened. I read the article Joe was featured on in Bluff Magazine and it was very insightful.  From my perspective this is an extremely important step that Ultimate Bet had to make. Their reputation was in the mud and they had either let go of or lost a lot of pros with all of the drama and doubt from the cheating scandal. I said a while back that until they actually admitted they were wrong and made some serious management changes nothing would change.

Well sure enough Joe Sebok is now “Media and Operations Consultant” for the “new” Ultimate Bet online poker room. When I first heard about this I questioned Seboks’ sanity. However, after reading Seboks’ reasoning I have to commend him for this move. Sebok is in a can’t lose scenario. If UB fails everyone will say it was going to fold anyway because the cheating scandal was just too much. If UB succeeds Sebok is hailed as a hero (rightly so). I say that with the belief that Joe Sebok is serious about this enough to put his name on the product. To me that means he is going to do everything in his power to make the changes necessary and bring credibility back to the site.

Sebok indicated that he has visited the UB offices in Costa Rica and spoken with the operations staff and security face to face. That has got to be a good thing. He also has a few things that he wants to get accomplished while in this post. I won’t give away the entire article but it is certainly worth a read.

True, he won’t be able to win over everyone and that is understandable. However, if he can find a way to turn around the debacle that was UB just a few years ago he will have made one of the smartest business decisions of his young life.

Good luck Joe.

It took 88 hands for Joe Cada to defeat Darvin Moon heads-up for the bracelet. Cada is now the youngest main event world series of poker winner in history. Cada also takes down $8.5 million dollars in prize money for his efforts. Hopefully Cada puts the money to good use and does not gamble it all away. At this point he is literally set for life if he manages his money properly.

Good luck and well done to Joe Cada!

After a marathon session last night Darvin Moon and Joe Cada emerged as the two that will battle it out for the $8.5 million dollar first prize and the title of 2009 WSOP Main Event bracelet winner. Joe Cada fought back from nowhere after being down to $2 million in chips at one point. He was on life support and managed to hang around long enough to rebuild his stack and catch a few hands. Cada did a fantastic job and he got lucky when he needed too as well.

Darvin Moon had his ups and downs especially early on but he too managed to fight back from being short at one point. I am going to give the edge to Joe Cada in the heads-up match. Unless Moon catches some cards I don’t see him out playing this kind.

Phil Ivey busted out of the 2009 main event final table in seventh place this evening. Ivey got his money in good holding Ace King versus Darvin Moons Ace Queen. Moon hit a queen on the flop and there was no help on the turn or river for Phil Ivey. The championship bracelet run is over. I am sure Phil will shrug it off as usual but it has to sting to run this far and then take a beat like that. Maybe next time. Ivey takes hom a $1.4 million dollar pay day. Ivey busted out 7th at WSOP final table.

The 2009 Main Event is now down to seven players. Phil Ivey has pretty much been stuck in neutral all day long at $10 million. However, Buchman has built his stack to $52 million and is now second to Darvin Moons $59 million. There is plenty of action left. I will post a little later.

Yes the World Poker Tour has yet another owner. Personally, I believe this may be the best scenario for the troubled WPT. As you may well know the WPT has had trouble sustaining ownership. The stock has dropped dramatically over the years and is currently hovering around $1.41 per share. Mike Sexton being a major player with both Party Gaming and the WPT gives instant credibility to this marriage and the vision to make it profitable for both sides.

Of all the owners the WPT could have this is the most natural fit in my opinion. Let’s hope it works out well.

I went and played the Majestic Star Deep Stacks Challenge yesterday. Another great run in that I finished up 12th out of 50 when my two pair lost to a flush draw. We got all the chips in post flop and let fate do its thing. Although it was disappointing I felt like I played excellent poker yesterday and there were no spots where I left any  money on the table. I played as flawless as possible.

I have to tell you that these special tournaments they run have outstanding structure and 30 minute levels so you get plenty of time to really play poker. There is a lot of dead money in these things and it’s relatively easy to chip up early. Looking forward to the Winter Challenge Deep Stacks event next month.

After all of the so called hype going into the final table can Darvin Moon win it all? My guess is that he is at least going to finish in 3rd place unless he has some godforsaken meltdown. Moon currently has $59 million in chips or 1/3 of the chips in play. That is a lot of chips and would certainly allow him to wait for the premium hands without risking much. After listening and seeing several interviews he seems to be a bit taken aback by his new found stardom. Darvin is a good guy that simply wants to get back to cutting down trees. Strange but true. Most of us would be thrilled to be in a situation where we could retire and enjoy life but this guy wants to go back to work. Different strokes for different folks I suppose.

The only problem I have with Moon winning is that I do not believe he would be a very good ambassador for the game. That needs to be changed by Harrah’s in my opinion. All players that play in the main event should have to sign a promotional contract to get out and do prime time interviews and talk shows to promote the game after they win. That is a very small price to pay considering you just took down $8 million plus. Also, Moon isn’t much of a talker and has very little personality. Nothing wrong with that but it does not project well on TV. I suppose one could make the same argument about Phil Ivey. In any event I am glad that this thing is only a few days away. It seems like forever already with the delay.